Homemade Pizza Dough

Posted by: Chris

Is there really anything better than pizza? I can eat it pretty much every day for the rest of my life, and I’m just talking about plain, cheese pizza. When you start to explore the versatility of pizza the options become endless. All you need is a  little imagination and some quality ingredients.

No matter what you dream up for your pizzas, they must all start at one place — the dough! It’s the base of every great pizza.

I make this dough at least twice a month, and once you get the hang of the technique you may never buy fresh pizza dough at the supermarket again.

Ingredients

Makes enough dough for two pizzas

• 1 cup of lukewarm water
• 1 package of active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar or honey
• 1/4 cup olive oil + additional to grease bowl
• 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour + additonal for kneading and forming pizzas
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• Cornmeal for dusting

Tools:

• Pizza peel or baking sheet (with parchment paper)
• Pizza stone (optional)

Put water, yeast, sugar and olive oil into the bowl of a stand mixer; mix on low with wisk attachment for 15 seconds to combine. Let mixture sit for five minutes until it starts to foam.

Affix dough hook to the mixer; add flour and salt to the wet ingredients and mix on low until a sticky dough is formed. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth and pulls cleanly away from the bowl (roughly five minutes); the dough should not be sticky to the touch

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, knead for two minutes.

Form dough into a ball, place in a large, oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour or until it doubles in size.

Dough has doubled in size compared to dough in above photo.

Punch down dough to release built-up air.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead back into a ball.

Cut the dough into two equal parts and form both into balls. If only using one, place the other dough ball into a freezer bag coated generously with olive oil; it can be frozen for up to a month*. Brush remaining dough ball with olive oil, cover with a dishtowel and let rest for 20 minutes. It’s important to let the dough rest at this point, so the glutens that built up while forming the balls can relax and allow the dough to be more easily stretched and shaped into a pizza.

Forming the pizza

Preheat the over to 450 degrees.

If you have a pizza peel, dust generously with cornmeal; If you are using a baking sheet, line with parchment paper and dust with cornmeal.

Place dough on generously floured your work surface and sprinkle some more flour on top of the dough.

Working outwards from the middle, flatten the dough with your fingertips to form the shape of a pizza (Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly round, that’s the beauty of homemade pizza!) Once the pizza has taken its shape, lift it off the surface and stretch the dough over the back of your knuckles, all the while turning the dough in a clockwise motion. Use the weight of the hanging dough to your advantage here, allowing it to stretch itself, and turning to assure a consistent thickness throughout the pizza.

Once dough is to your preferred thickness and size, place on a pizza peel or baking sheet.

Top your pizza with sauce and cheese or your choice of ingredients.

Slide pizza in oven.

Check pizza after five minutes to make sure it is cooking evenly; if not, rotate.

Cook for another five minutes; total cook time is 10-12 minutes or until crust begins to brown (if using the parchment-lined baking sheet, slide the parchment paper out from beneath the pizza and bake for another minute to crisp the bottom).

*Thaw frozen dough by placing it in the refrigerator the night before you want to use it. Remove dough from the refrigerator at least an hour before you want to form your pizza. Dough should be as close to room temperature as possible.